Water Safety Class Pushed

MIRAMAR — In an effort to better educate its residents about water safety, the city looked inward first.

The result: More than 30 community services workers were among the first people in the city to take Aquatics Director Leland Yarger's "'Til Help Arrives" class.

The employees, who are often on the road sprucing up the city's parks, heard Yarger speak about how to handle a crisis situation, be it a drowning or some other emergency that calls for quick thinking.

"We want to do anything that helps us serve the community," said Dan Naples, an operations supervisor for the city. "Plus, you never know when you're going to need this knowledge. We may need to help a co-worker, or we may need it at home with our families."

Yarger, who was hired as the city's aquatics director in May, has been trying to address the unusually high number of drownings in Miramar.

Only Fort Lauderdale has more drownings, but Miramar has the highest per-capita rate of drownings in Broward County.

Yarger held up a volleyball, an empty plastic jug from a water cooler and a piece of rope as examples of makeshift flotation and rescue devices.

"Anything you can use to help someone stay afloat," Yarger said during the July 19 lecture.

"You put yourself at risk by going into the water, especially if it's a situation where you're in street clothes rather than your bathing suit."

Drowning victims usually can't breathe well enough to yell for help, and quickly lose control of their arms, Yarger said.

"Sometimes you'll throw a flotation device right in front of them but they won't be able to reach it because they have lost arm control," Yarger said. "That's why you want to throw them right under their armpits."

Even though many of the community services workers have taken cardiopulmonary resuscitation classes on their own, Yarger's class gave them a brief review of what to do in life-threatening situations. A video dramatization showed how people wonder about what to do.

"I got kind of mad watching the video because everyone was so slow to call 911," Naples said.

"It's a common-sense thing to do."

Yarger proposed the "'Til Help Arrives" class at a City Commission meeting in June. The city has put up a banner that promotes the free water safety classes at the Miramar Civic Center, 6920 SW 35th St.

Swim Central, Broward County's swimming information center, and the American Red Cross are helping to pay for the classes.

Free classes are scheduled for Aug. 3 and Sept. 7. Call 954-986-3040.

Nick Sortal can be reached at 954-385-7906 or nsortal@sun-sentinel.com.